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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. Virginia freshman wrestler Chris Henrich (Lansdale, Pa.) earned an at-large bid Sunday to the NCAA Championships, as determined by a meeting of the league’s coaches Sunday morning. The championships will be contested March 20-22 in St. Louis.
Henrich joins teammates Ross Gitomer (So., Flemington, N.J.) and Rocco Caponi (Jr., Uniontown, Ohio), who earned automatic NCAA bids after winning the 125-pound and 184-pound ACC titles, respectively, on Saturday.
Henrich steadily improved throughout his freshman campaign, posting a 23-8 record. He is ranked No. 19 nationally by InterMat this week. After going 8-6 through Dec. 30, Henrich caught fire and went 15-2 the rest of the way. He won 14-consecutive matches from Jan. 5 to Feb. 10.
“Chris is one of the hardest workers I have ever coached,” Virginia head coach Steve Garland said. “He gets better every day. The coaches in the conference didn’t hesitate to give him a wild card because of the way he wrestles and how hard he competes. Everyone wants him representing our conference at NCAAs.”
Saturday, he took second place at the ACC Championships, falling to top seed and ninth-ranked Mike Letts of Maryland, 4-3, in the title match.
Henrich was one of four ACC wrestlers that gained at-large bids, joining Ryan Goodman (NC State), Keegan Mueller (North Carolina) and Eric Medina (Maryland).